The Mastery Learning technique is one of the educational hallmarks of The Grauer School. Grauer students are expected to master key skills and concepts on their way to understanding a topic or subject, despite how long it might take.
Our students set their aspiration for each class, then work to achieve or surpass it. Mastery Learning enables students to learn from their mistakes, master each skill on their way to full understanding of course material, and even determine the relative importance of a subject to their personal educational objectives.
Our small school environment makes this possible. Each student in every class, working closely with their teacher, establishes a goal level of competency (a Mastery Learning Level) for that class.
When a student presents work that is below their mastery level, they have the opportunity to upgrade their work to mastery level. It doesn’t benefit students to stop working if they have not mastered the material. Teachers have office hours to offer extra help, and students may need to rework homework, and retake quizzes and tests. Scores on final exams are not upgradeable.
Mastery Learning is a privilege that school administrators or a student’s individual teacher can revoke at any time if patterns of late work are observed.
Mastery Learning helps ensure that students develop self motivation, rather than simply responding to the pressures of teachers and/or parents.